The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform. This special series of Tour Grants includes separate, unsolicited $1000 grants to four different programs in and around New York City, where Phish began its annual four-show New Year's Eve run on December 28.

In honor of Phish's upcoming show at Madison Square Garden, December 29th, The Mockingbird Foundation is sending a check for $1000 to support music education through the William A. Shine - Great Neck South High School Performing Arts Department in Great Neck, NY. This high school on Long Island, bordering Queens, has an outstanding performing arts department.

This is Mockingbird's 45th grant in New York and 423rd grant overall. The Foundation has now disbursed $170,500 in Tour Grants, 11% of its more than $1.4M in grants covering all 50 states. Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this run. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.

(By the way, we've often invited venues to match Tour Grants, but have yet to be successful at that. So, if you have a contact at MSG corporate, please talk up Mockingbird and/or these grantees, and/or send target contact info to ellis@mbird.org.)